Open source software security

Drupal Panels 6.x-3.9 XSS Vulnerability

Description of Vulnerability:

Drupal (http://drupal.org) is a robust content management system (CMS) written in PHP and MySQL. The Drupal Panels module (http://drupal.org/project/panels) "allows a site administrator to create customized layouts for multiple uses. At its core it is a drag and drop content manager that lets you visually design a layout and place content within that layout." Unfortunately the Panels module contains a persistent arbitrary HTML injection vulnerability (also known as cross site scripting, or XSS) due to the fact that it fails to user supplied input before display.

Systems affected:

Drupal 6.22 with Panels 6.x-3.9 was tested and shown to be vulnerable.

Impact

The Panels module is deployed on over 100,000 Drupal sites according to the module project page. User could inject arbitrary scripts into pages affecting site users. This could result in administrative account compromise leading to web server process compromise. A more likely scenario would be for an attacker to inject hidden content (such as iframes, applets, or embedded objects) that would attack client browsers in an attempt to compromise site users' machines. This vulnerability could also be used to launch cross site request forgery (XSRF) attacks against the site that could have other unexpected consequences.

Mitigating factors:

In order to exploit this vulnerability the attacker must have credentials to an authorized account that has been assigned the 'use page manager' and 'administer advanced pane settings' permissions. This could be accomplished via social engineering, brute force password guessing, or abuse or legitimate credentials.